“Slowly… slowly…” Ahri muttered to herself. She was in the midst of skiing down what was basically a glorified lump of snow when Chanyeol’s sudden fit of giggling caused her to lose her balance and fall face-first into the snow.

“Chanyeol!” she yelled at him when she got up. The male student fumbled with his phone and hastily shoved it into his jacket pocket. Ahri furrowed her eyebrows and growled, “I said not to distract me!”

“Sorry, it’s just that Baekhyun sent me a Snap of these two kids waddling on the snow like penguins and I just couldn’t help but laugh,” Chanyeol replied. He was looking at the ground with his hands in front of him like a child being scolded by their parent. He then looked up to meet her eyes and he continued, “I didn’t mean to distract you, but like…”

“Like…?”

“Could you maybe hurry it up a bit?” he asked quickly.

“Don’t rush me!” Ahri exclaimed as she huffed a breath of air.

“WE’VE BEEN AT THE GREENS FOR THREE HOURS, AHRI. HOW CAN SOMEONE NOT KNOW HOW TO GLIDE PROPERLY ON THEIR SKIS AFTER THREE HOURS?!” Chanyeol said in an outburst. He quickly covered his mouth with both of his hands, then mumbled a quiet “Sorry”.

Ahri didn’t even have the will to get mad at Chanyeol anymore. She dropped to the ground and removed her skis. When she didn’t get up, Chanyeol sat next to her and poked her arm.

“Are you mad?”

“No,” she breathed. “It’s my fault. Sorry for making you put up with me.” She lowered her head in dejection and sighed. She felt guilty because she had lashed out at Chanyeol, who had passed the beginner’s test on his first try. He was only keeping her company because he didn’t want to leave her alone, and yet she was getting mad at him.

Chanyeol suddenly had a brilliant idea, and he fished his phone out of his pocket. He opened SnapConverse and clicked on Baekhyun’s name. When the Snap started to play, he brought the phone in front of Ahri’s face and said, “Watch this, it’s really funny!”

Ahri stared at the screen. Two small children were following their father, and from the way they were dressed they already looked like penguins. They wore black winter jackets, with black snowpants to match. They each had a yellow scarf around their necks, and the front of their winter jacket had a spot of white on it, resembling a penguin. Because of the thick clothing they were wearing, the two children had to waddle in order to keep up with their dad.

Ahri let a smile slip as she watched the video with tender eyes. When she heard Baekhyun’s voice in the background, laughing and cooing at how cute the children were, her smile grew even larger. Then, the camera turned around and her eyes met Baekhyun’s. He was talking to his phone with a wide grin, commenting about how the children resembled penguins.

She let out a sigh as she admired him in the video. She wasn’t even listening to what he was saying (which happened quite often whenever he talked to her) because she found herself lost in his eyes. Ahri was confident she could stare into them forever.

Meanwhile, Chanyeol was wondering why in the world Ahri had such a goofy smile plastered on her face. Just moments ago, she had looked depressed and he knew she was getting frustrated over the fact that she couldn’t ski very well. He asked himself why her mood suddenly flipped, and he decided to do a little experiment because he had a small hunch he wanted to confirm.

When the Snap finished playing, he took his phone back and started going through the various pictures and videos he had of him and his best friend. “Ahri, look at this,” he said with a smile. He showed her a picture of him and Baekhyun when they were in middle school. The picture had been taken on Halloween, and the two were dressed up as dogs.

“We always coordinate our costumes, every year,” Chanyeol said in a soft voice. When he looked at the picture, an incredible wave of nostalgia washed over him. He glanced up at Ahri to see her expression, and just as he had predicted, she was smiling tenderly at the photo.

“That’s so sweet,” she wondered aloud. Then, she quickly added, “I mean, the coordinating of costumes and all.”

Chanyeol his lips and dug through his phone until he found the picture he really wanted to show her – a picture of Baekhyun sleeping. “We were studying together a couple weeks ago at the library and he fell asleep. I took a picture of it, but he doesn’t know,” he snickered.

Ahri stared at the picture lovingly, but when she noticed Chanyeol looking at her, her cheeks flushed red and she turned away from the photo. “It’s not nice to sneak up on people like that. What if he didn’t want his photo to be taken?” she asked.

Chanyeol didn’t answer her question. Instead, he smiled widely at her because he now knew something that he was sure would keep him entertained for a while. He may not be a master of fashion, or very book smart, but there was one thing Chanyeol understood with confidence: sometimes, people needed a good push.

Chanyeol was going to be the pusher.

.::.           .::.           .::.

Eunji, Kai and Sehun stood at the top of their next ski hill. They bent their knees and raised their ski poles just an inch off the ground. Eunji her lips and she wiggled her shoulders in a way that a lioness about to attack their prey would. “On your marks, get set…” she started.

“GO!” the three shouted in unison.

Kai and Sehun took the lead, and they kept increasing the gap between them. Eunji was determined to win, and that drove her to increase her speed as much as she could. Slowly, but surely, she passed Kai and was currently in second place. Sehun continued to push forward, which further increased the gap between them.

Sehun passed the finish line first and he let out a cry of victory. Eunji and Kai slowed down and came to a stop in front of Sehun, who was bragging about his victory.

“I won!” he said smugly. “Yehet.”

“I can’t believe I lost, again!” Eunji said in frustration. She then gulped when she recalled the consequences that came with losing the race.

“You do remember the bet, right?” Sehun asked mischievously.

“I’ll buy you lunch? Dinner? Both?” Eunji replied. She was practically pleading and trying to bribe Sehun with food so she wouldn’t have to enter the creepy, abandoned cabin at the foot of the mountain.

Sehun made a buzzer noise and shook his head. Kai sighed and his expression winced as if he was experiencing physical pain. “The haunted cabin, right?” he asked almost painfully.

“Wrong,” Sehun said sassily. “It’s just abandoned; no one said anything about it being haunted.”

He started gliding forward in the direction of the cabin. When he turned back and saw that his classmates weren’t following him, Sehun waved his arm to beckon them to follow. “Hurry up!” he whined. “Don’t be such sore losers.”

“Seriously, why couldn’t we just buy him a meal and call it a day,” Eunji grumbled to herself. Kai scoffed and his lips curved into a half-smile.

He nudged her arm and said, “We could always dip out right now. He’s not watching.”

Eunji thought about it for a while, but she eventually shook her head. She had lost the race fair and square, and it wasn’t in her taste to run away from a promise. Despite the fact that she’d be scared, Eunji didn’t want to lose Sehun’s trust, which she knew he didn’t give to just anyone.

“Did it just get darker?” Kai suddenly asked. He looked up at the sky, but it looked clear. White clouds floated in the sky, and the Sun was bright.

“What are you talking about?” Eunji replied with an eye roll. “It’s sunny right now.”

“But it felt like it just got a bit darker,” Kai mumbled to himself. He continued to stare up at the sky, but when Eunji suddenly jabbed his leg with one of her ski poles, he stopped to look at her.

“What’s with the excuses? Don’t tell me you’re scared,” she .

“Am not,” he snorted. Kai shook the thought out of his head. Eunji was right; it was still bright outside and with the exception of the slightly stronger wind than normal, everything seemed rather peaceful.

The trio reached the abandoned cabin and Sehun shivered when he laid eyes upon it. It was definitely run-down, and Lord knows when was the last time someone stepped foot into it. The cabin was made entirely of wood, and some of the boards at the side threatened to fall off. The wood had originally been a vibrant shade of brown-red, but years of snow and neglect had caused it to fade into its current lifeless rust colour.

“Well, go on,” Sehun said as he cocked his head towards the cabin. “We haven’t got all day.”

“We just go in and then come out, right?” Kai asked.

Sehun clicked his tongue and waved a finger in disapproval. “You gotta stay in there for 10 minutes. I’ll be timing every second.”

“10 minutes?!” Eunji yelled. “What are we going to do for 10 minutes?”

“That’s not my problem,” Sehun cackled. “Now go in, hurry!”

Eunji and Kai groaned, and began taking their skis off. They stepped into the deep snow and slowly made their way to the cabin. Kai grabbed the doorknob and gave it a good wiggle to pull it open. It opened with ease, revealing the dark interior. Eunji gulped and stood directly behind Kai. The male student took one step inside, which caused the wooden floor beneath them to creak.

They took small steps until the two of them were inside completely. Eunji slowly closed the door behind them, all the while praying for their safety. The two stood in the middle of room, not making a single move nor sound. From within the cabin, Eunji could hear the winds outside getting stronger. She instinctively inched closer to Kai, but she made sure to leave a good amount of space between them.

Meanwhile, Sehun stood outside the cabin with his phone in one hand. He had set up a timer, and he was waiting for the 10 minutes to pass. A minute had already passed by, but the male student had yet to hear any screams. When the wind blew stronger, Sehun adjusted his scarf so that it covered the bottom half of his face.

No more than 5 minutes had passed when the wind suddenly got much more violent. The Sun quickly became clouded, and the bright sunshine that had kissed his skin just seconds ago was now gone. Sehun looked around him frantically. The wind was so strong that it caused the snow on the ground to wisp upwards, forming small vortexes.

Sehun was just about to cry out to his friends to tell them to get out of the cabin when the wind blew the snow that had been resting on the mountain behind the tiny hut onto it. Sehun watched in horror as more and more snow kept piling itself onto the tiny house. He glided over to the cabin and used his hands to claw away at the snow, but he wasn’t even sure how far he was from reaching the front door. The entire house was covered in snow, and the winds kept blowing more and more snow onto it.

“Kai! Eunji!” Sehun cried out. He continued to call their names while he dug through the snow. Whether it was from the howling winds or the fact that his friends couldn’t hear him, Sehun never got a response. He started to panic, and guilt started to fill his heart. If he hadn’t made the bet, his friends wouldn’t be trapped.

Sehun backed away slowly from the cabin. He couldn’t save them alone. He turned around and started skiing as fast as he could. Snow started falling from the sky, but that didn’t slow him down. Sehun didn’t care about the fact that he couldn’t see 10 metres in front of him, or that the wind was hitting his face like daggers.

He needed to get help.

.::.           .::.           .::.

When the first pile of snow fell onto the cabin’s rooftop, Eunji jumped in fear. “What was that?” she asked nervously.

“I don’t know,” Kai replied with confusion. The unsettling feeling in his stomach that he desperately tried to supress found its way to the surface. He ran towards the only window in the small cabin in an attempt to get a glimpse of the state outside. Right before he reached the window, another pile of snow hit the cabin and covered the window. All Kai saw was white.

“What’s happening?” Eunji asked, starting to get frantic. She ran towards the door and tried pushing against the door, but it didn’t open. “We’re trapped,” she said under her breath.

Eunji fell to the ground, and she hugged her knees. When it dawned on her that they were trapped in a tiny cabin with no way out, she started breathing heavily. She backed herself up against a wall and tried to calm herself down, except she wasn’t sure how to. She could feel her eyes starting to get moist, and tears fell from her eyes when she pulled her phone out only to see that she didn’t have any signal.

She was in a dark, cramped, abandoned and possibly haunted cabin with no cell reception, no food, and no heat. She was starting to feel claustrophobic, and was about to burst into tears when Kai knelt down in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“We’re going to be okay,” he said, though Eunji spotted the shakiness of his voice.

She felt his hands shaking against her jacket, and Eunji knew that he just as afraid as she was. Even in their current situation, how was Kai able to act so strong?

Kai removed his hands and sat next to Eunji. He sighed and dipped his head down. “No cell reception, I guess?” he asked. When Eunji nodded her head slowly, Kai started to laugh. “Why is it that whenever we’re together, we never have cell reception?”

How could he laugh in such a situation?

“You and I, we’re always getting lost,” he chuckled and shook his head.

Eunji didn’t speak. She focused her eyes on the wall that was in front of her, and she forced herself to not look at Kai. She didn’t know what she was feeling at the moment. She felt cold, frightened, insecure and confused. Eunji was annoyed by the fact that even in their current situation, Kai insisted on acting like the “tough guy” he forced himself to be, but at the same time she admired him for being able to do so.

The two stayed in silence until Kai’s barely audible voice broke it. “I’m sorry I’m not Sehun.”

She whipped her head to look at him, mouth hanging open and with wide eyes. “What?” was all she managed to sputter out.

Kai scratched the back of his head nervously, and glanced at her briefly before he turned his gaze away. “I’m sure you never imagined yourself sitting in a tiny, crummy old cabin during your vacation, with me no less,” he replied with a hint of loneliness in his voice.

Eunji had a million things she wanted to say. For one, she wanted to scream “No” over and over again, because why was Kai saying any of this? Secondly, she wanted to ask him why he felt that way. Thirdly, she wanted to ask him if she could give him a hug because he suddenly looked so distant and it broke her heart to see him look so lonely.

Before she could mutter a sound, Kai continued speaking, “Sehun never talks. Not during elementary school, middle school, cram school, and high school. If anyone manages to hear him talk, it’s usually because he wants something from them, or he’s forced to do so. He only ever talked to me, and occasionally some of the guys, but never to a girl. But, he talks to you just as much as he talks to me, so it’s obvious the two of you are closer than I can even imagine. You’d probably want him here with you right now. What am I saying? I mean, you wouldn’t even want to be in this situation in the first place, but I mean, hypothetically speaking, if you wanted to be in this situation which I know you don’t want, I’m just saying that it’d probably be a lot better if Sehun were with you.”

Kai scratched the side of his neck, then mumbled, “You’d probably be a lot more comfortable if he were here. You probably wouldn’t be crying.”

“Stop! Just stop!” Eunji exclaimed and waved her hands in the air. She wiped her eyes to rid them of tears and sniffled once. Kai looked at her with a stunned expression, and she returned an equally surprised one. “What are you going on about?”

“Like I said, you and Sehun-“

“I’m not just friends with Sehun,” Eunji exclaimed. “You’re my friend too! Why wouldn’t I want to be with you?”

She forced herself to give him a small smile. Eunji still felt scared, but this wasn’t the time to be a coward. “Hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to be in this situation, it doesn’t matter who I’m with. I’m just glad I’m not alone.”

Kai looked at her with disbelief. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Eunji. “Ah, I don’t get you, Kai,” she groaned. “How can you act so brave all the time? I’m here, about to piss my pants because of how scared I am, and you’re there talking nonsense about how I’d want to be stuck in a haunted cabin with Sehun than you.”

“You’re right,” Kai said under his breath. “It’s just an act.”

Eunji had heard from Sehun about how Jongin and Kai were two different personalities, but she didn’t utter a word because she didn’t feel like it was her place to talk about it. Besides, Eunji was the type of person who didn’t fully believe anything unless the person in question told them personally. It wasn’t that she doubted Sehun’s words, but she couldn’t bring herself to fully acknowledge the fact that “Kai” was merely a persona unless Kai told her himself.

“You know my real name, right? Kim Jongin,” Kai started. “Why do you think I tell everyone to call me Kai?”

Eunji let him speak. After a few seconds of silence, Kai took a deep breath of air and continued, “Kai is cool, don’t you think? He’s brave, unafraid, a bit cocky, but popular. He’s everything that Jongin isn’t. He’s everything that I’m not.”

More silence passed. Then, Eunji said in a low voice, “Jongin is kind, considerate, a bit awkward, and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

“How do you know?” Kai asked her, though it sounded as if he was directing the question at himself.

“At Suho’s Christmas Ball,” Eunji started. She placed her gloved hand over Kai’s and squeezed it slightly. “When we got lost because of that stupid cat. The person who gave me their jacket, who smiled in fascination at the trees and stars; that was Jongin. That was you, I’m sure of it.”

Kai scoffed and removed his hand from her grip. “You don’t have to pretend around me,” Eunji said softly. “Whether it’s Kai or Jongin, you’re my friend either way. Just be yourself.”

“I don’t know how to,” Kai said as he rested the back of his head against the wall. “Sometimes, I want to say something but it comes out in a different way. I can’t… I-I…”

“You can. Maybe not right away, but let’s take it one step at a time, alright? Nothing happens overnight,” Eunji said through a shy smile. Kai was opening up to her, and she felt like she was so close to seeing the other side of his heart. If he was going to trust her with his secret, she was going to do everything in her power to make sure his trust did not go to waste.

“How can you believe me, just like that? How can you have so much faith in me?” Kai asked. He hadn’t thought Eunji would have believed him. Even Sehun had been skeptical about the whole concept for a while after he found out about the two personas, and that had been after years of friendship.

“I trust you,” she breathed.

That was all he ever wanted to hear.

A/N: I know I've been writing about Sehun a lot, so hopefully this chapter gave ya'll some love for Kai <3 Also, Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate it! I was watching a re-run of the 2017 Gala and when I saw Lay and Luhan on it I screamed, which earned me a lot of a funny looks from my relatives >.<

\\ xoxo